Would be great to have the smart playlist functionality improved the way it works in for instance JRiver.
The functionality allows to make playlists extremely flexible supported by simple expression language.
Better well copied than a bad new implementation…
I would support this feature alot agree on the JRiver copy-paste suggestion
While you cannot create a “smart playlist” in Roon, you can do something similar by using using Focus and filters and then saving as a bookmark.
For example, if you want to create a dynamically updated list of all the post-year 2000 tracks by Bob Dylan which you have marked as favorites, then go to Tracks, filter on AlbumArtist = “Bob Dylan”, click the Heart button to filter on favorites, and go into Focus and select Years from 2000 to 2020. Then create a bookmark and you can go back to this view at any time.
With that said, the Focus and Filter features leave a lot to be desired and there should an ability to use expressions to create more complex and comprehensive filtering a la JRiver or iTunes.
For example, my bookmark above will give you tracks from all albums released 2000-2020, but you can’t filter out compilations or bootlegs. So you end up with tracks that were first released much earlier than 2000 but are on complications released post 2000. Not what I had in mind. You can Focus on compilations or bootlegs in Album view but not in Tracks.
Further, Focus and the filters in the Tracks view are very limited and don’t let you create Boolean expressions, e.g. you can’t create bookmarks with multiple Artists such as Artist = “Bob Dylan” or “Tom Petty”. You could use Focus to select multiple Performers, but Performer may include things you don’t want, e.g. Performer = Tom Petty is going to give you some Johnny Cash tracks that you may not want. You should be able to select Artist or AlbumArtist in Focus, but you can’t.
Thanks for the suggestion!
The key challenges is that next to meta data, I have folder logic to my music files.
I would like to have dynamic playlists e.g. I have a top 40 2020 folder which is the basis for the playlist and every time a new release is added to the folder I wanted to show up in my playlist. I have not been able to do this with the functionality available to me in Roon. Open for ideas and suggestions on this one
Roon does not have any way to include folder logic or any type of view/search by folder. They are philosophically opposed to it. To fully embrace Roon, you just have get past that…
But there are other (and probably better) ways to accomplish what you want in Roon. “Top 40” is not a genre in Roon, but you can easily create a Tag called “Top 40” and apply the tag to each new relevant Album when you add it to you library. You can then go to Albums view, select the “Top 40” tag and Focus on “2020”. If you want, you can create a Bookmark for that view, and you will then have a dynamic “playlist” of all “Top 40” albums for 2020. This will actually give you more flexibility, since you can then apply other filters and or broaden the timeframe, etc. You can also do the same in the “Tracks” view, where you can apply other filters in Focus such as “Picks” or “Favorites” so you can only play the best tracks from each of the albums in your Tag.
I still organize my file library in folders to some extent, so I can segregate certain types of content, e.g. everything ripped from a CD is in one folder, everything from HDTracks is another folder, Bootlegs are in another, etc. But using Tags in Roon gives me a lot more flexibility to mix and match and filter.
Thanks that works to a large extend, appreciated